1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to arrangements for restraining hoods of vehicle bodies, and more particularly, to a structural arrangement for restraining a hood provided on a vehicle body by which the hood is prevented from moving into a cabin space formed in the vehicle body when an external force affects the hood to push the same toward the cabin on the occasion of, for example, collision of the vehicle body with another.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been proposed various structural arrangements for preventing a hood which is provided for closing an opening on a vehicle body for forming an engine room, trunk room or the like from moving into a cabin formed in the vehicle body on the occasion of collision of the vehicle body with another. In one of such structural arrangements in the vehicle body, such as disclosed in the Japanese utility model application published before examination under publication No. 54-6181, a hook incorporated with a hinge which supports the hood on the vehicle body to open and close the engine room is provided to be able to engage with a stopper formed on a part of the vehicle body. With this structural arrangement for restraining the hood, when the hood is pushed to be moved backward to the cabin space, the hook is caused to engage with the stopper and thereby the hood is restricted from moving backward and rising so as to be prevented from moving into the cabin.
However, in the event of the structural arrangement for restraining the hood thus proposed previously, the hook is incorporated with the hinge and consequently the hinge must be designed to be in a specific shape. Further, since the stopper with which the hook engages is formed with a cowl panel or the like which is not superior in strength, it is required to reinforce sufficiently the cowl panel or the like forming the stopper in order to surely restrict the hood from moving backward and rising and this results in a disadvantage that the number of reinforcements combined with the vehicle body are increaced.